Hero?
by FanpireWitch
Summary: Takes place immediately after Ray of Light Part 2. Clare realizes she has to clean her stuff out of Eli's locker but does Eli beat her to it? Eclare, Adam shenanigans , Flashback Fluff, and tampons? Better than it sounds.


**My second Eclare fic everyone was so nice about my first one 3 I finally decided to post it on here its pretty much been finished since March but after seeing the new promo I figured I'd post it now. Enjoy. I do not own Degrassi sadly. **

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Clare was absolutely distraught after her conversation with Eli in the green house that morning. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting on this window ledge crying. She wiped the tears off of her face with the back of her hands. She was certain her face would be blotchy and her eyes red. She looked down at her watch noticing that classes were starting soon. She knew that she still needed her books for her class from their locker, his locker. She had almost forgotten, she would now have to move all of her belongings out of Eli's locker and into her other locker far away from all of her classes. She slowly stood from her place by the window and put her bag on her shoulder. She walked toward the locker, thankful that Eli was no where in sight. She made it to the locker and quickly put in his combination, trying her hardest to avoid seeing him. She opened it and was instantly saddened by the familiarity of his belongings so casually mixed in with hers. She glanced at the large amount of stuff she would have to move to her relocated locker and then at her watch. She only had a couple of minutes until her first class. She would have to move her stuff out later in the day. She looked at her vampire posters and briefly recalled Eli's reaction when he first teased her about them.

"Should I be jealous of Mr. Shirtless in our locker?" Eli asked one day as he caught up with her from behind and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him and gave him a coy smile,

"Why? Are you intimidated by him?", she laughed. He glanced at her,

"Me, intimidated by a shirtless guy in front of a pink back drop, who I'm pretty sure is puckering his lips with some type of sparkly lipstick? I didn't know that's what you liked in a guy" he puckered his lips pushing them in and out like a fish approaching her cheek slowly. She playfully swatted him away,

"And this is coming from the guy who used to wear eyeliner?" she joked.

"Ouch,woman bringing that up again?" he pretended to be offended

"You know I'm all about freedom and expression and all that. If a man wants to wear make-up why the hell can't he?" Eli laughed. Clare laughed as well.

"You're right,I thought you looked very handsome Eli. It really brought out the green in your eyes" she added. She could see the smug look growing on his face

"So I've been told" he batted his eyelashes.

"Don't let it go to your head" she smiled.

"Don't worry Edwards," he tightened his grip around her shoulders smiling, "only your eyes can compete with mine"

She continued to look around Eli's locker getting what she needed for her first period class when she heard voices around the corner and one name in particular she did not want to hear. "Nice work Eli" she heard someone say. She suddenly began moving a lot faster and managed to find everything she needed. Eli saw Clare from down the hall and wasn't sure what he would say when he reached his locker. He didn't want it to be awkward. Clare was about to close the locker when something stopped her. She looked up to see Eli's hand holding it open.

"I have to get my stuff" he quickly said, reaching to get a book out of the locker. As he pulled it out a series of papers and one of Clare's notebooks fell onto the floor. She immediately reached to retrieve what had fallen and so did Eli. There hands collided and Clare quickly pulled hers away picking up the papers with it. She avoided eye contact with him as she stood up straight and stared at his shoes. She knew this wasn't like her, so she looked up at him and stared him straight in the eyes. As soon as she did so she regretted it. Surely he'd notice she'd been crying. She'd spent enough time being sad over this. She did what she thought was right and she had to stand behind her actions and respect his choice.

"Don't worry, all my stuff will be out of your locker after lunch" she spoke in an even tone.

"Clare.." Eli started but just then the bell rang signaling that Clare was late for class, without another word she quickly headed off. Lucky, all her classes were close by. Eli watched her run off and then turned his attention toward their cluttered locker. He himself wasn't too concerned with being late. So he took his time gathering his things while the morning announcements started.

"Good morning Degrassi, don't forget to buy your tickets for this years Prom it's sure to be a blast.." Eli wondered if he and Clare would still going together, he'd never formally asked her and he doubted she would even say yes if her were to now. He grabbed for another one of his books, but as he did so he hit Clare's box of tampons and before he knew it, they all fell out onto him and then onto the floor. The pink plastic colored tubes scattered throughout the floor. Surprised, Eli just stood there. He briefly looked down the hall both ways before quickly bending down to retrieve them. He wasn't sure what to do with them. He started stuffing the tampons from the floor back into the box. He hoped that he didn't violate any kind of "feminine product sanitary rule" as he did so and he hoped even more so that Clare wouldn't notice how they were forced into the box. He looked up and down the hallway, thankful that he was still alone. He swiftly closed Clare's tampon box and placed it back on the shelf in the locker. He attempted to push it back farther on the shelf than it was previously when, the box hit something. He reached behind the box to retrieve the item. It was the card Clare had given him for their 3 month anniversary. It had previously been showcased on his barely cluttered locker shelf before Clare moved in. Eli and Clare both shared a love of writing, and for the special occasions they often chose to write cards and notes to each other instead of exchanging elaborate gifts. The card was one from a collection of stationary Helen bought for Clare at a craft fair. It was faint pink color with an embossed golden "C" on the front. Inside she had placed a photo of Eli and her from the Romeo and Jules after party Adam had thrown to celebrate the play's last show. Eli remembered that night very well.

Romeo and Jules had ended its last show to yet another standing ovation and Adam had declared that the cast and crew and who ever else wanted to come were all invited to his house for an after party. Eli invited Clare to come right after the show to the party but, she insisted that it was his night and she had another meeting at the police station on her case to attend. Eli told Clare to stop by afterward if she was up for it. The party was great as Torrres' parties generally were. Eli was talking to Dave about his next project plans when Eli felt his cellphone vibrate in his pocket. He looked at his phone and saw Clare's name and picture,

"Sorry man, I gotta take this." he said to Dave.

"Girlfriend?" he asked with a knowing look.

"Girlfriend" Eli nodded just before answering the call as Dave patted him on the back and walked toward Tori and Tristan. "Hey Clare" he said with a smile on his face,

"Hey, are you still at Adam's" she asked

"Yea, Do you need me to pick you up? I can meet you?" he offered.

"No no," she said quickly, "I'm with my mom. I'm on my way to Adam's now, I'll be there in 5 minutes" she added.

"Cool, where do you wanna meet?" he asked.

"Um, is outside okay?"

"Yea, I'll be waiting on the bench for you." he said

"You always are" She replied with a small laugh.

"I always will be," he said, smirking to himself as he pictured the look she always gave him when he said something cheesy.

"I'll see you soon."

"bye"

Eli waited a few minutes before he went outside to meet Clare at the bench. A couple of minutes later, Clare was making her way through Adam's house toward the sliding glass doors, stopping only briefly to say a few "hello's" and "congratulations" to the cast. Eli saw her approaching through the transparent doors and stood up to greet her.

"Hey" Clare said with a small smile as she walked over to him and reached up to give him a hug and a peck on the lips.

"Hey, how are you?" He asked taking her hands in his. He knew after she had these meetings she was always a bit uneasy. She pulled him down to sit on the bench with her.

"I'm alright, but I don't really want to talk about it anymore tonight." She said looking down.

"Fair enough" Eli said playing with her hands, "If you want to talk about it, I'm here" He said looking up at her as she still looked down at their hands.

Clare looked up at him, "How's the party?"

Eli sighed he wanted to know if she was okay, but he knew she'd tell him eventually, she always did. "You know, the usual Adam get together, obnoxiously loud music, alcohol, and tons of food, but without the streaking this time. It's a good time" Clare gave him a small smile,

"You deserve it, the play was amazing Eli, are you sad it's over?" she said waiting for his response.

"Nah, it ran its course, it's time to focus on other important things now" He said looking her in the eyes and moving in closer. Clare tilted he head up toward his. They both closed their eyes, their lips almost touching. Clare brought her hand to Eli's face. Suddenly, the sliding glass doors opened to reveal Adam, with a cup in hand. Clare and Eli instantly pulled apart, Eli somewhat irritated and Clare slightly blushing.

"I found him guys" Adam said beginning to close the door, "He's outside on the bench makin' out with Clare _again_" He said shutting the door completely and turning back to the party.

"Adam!" Eli shouted partially annoyed partially amused. Clare stared back in forth between them both and just started laughing uncontrollably. She hadn't laughed this much in weeks and Eli was grateful for it. He just smiled at her until she calmed down.

"Clare are you okay?" he asked laughing briefly. Breathlessly Clare answered,

"I don't know why I'm laughing so much, I just, I"

"Breath Clare", Eli said putting his hands on her shoulders amused. Clare leaned in and kissed him enthusiastically, Eli quickly responded moving one of his hands to her hair and the other to her forearm. The kiss lasted for several seconds until the pair were abruptly interrupted by the sound of laughter. Clare and Eli turned to see Adam and a few others taking photographs of them. Once the group saw the couple turn to face them they scattered.

"Adam that's it, you're gonna get it!" Eli shouted somewhat amused as he stood up and made his way for the door. He was stopped when Clare grabbed his hand.

"What? don't you want him to delete those pictures, erase the evidence?" Clare just shook her head and brought Eli back down to the bench.

"No, if I've learned anything in the past week it's that solid evidence is hard to come by" Eli moved closer to her on the bench, "and If Adam wants to keep a record of our relationship I don't mind, too much" Eli just gave her a smirk and put his arm around her. "I have something for you" she said reaching into her bag. Eli raised an eyebrow. "Close your eyes" Eli did as he was told. He felt Clare open his hand and placed something in it. "I know it's kind of cheesy but, you can open your eyes" Eli opened his eyes, in his hand he saw a black pin button with a yellow Batman Bat Signal on it. He picked it up and stared at it closer, smiling. "I just, I wanted you show you how much it means to me how supportive you've been with this whole..Asher situation. I thought I'd let you know that these past weeks you've been kinda my own personal super hero" she said.

"Clare, this means a lot"

"It's nothing, I found the button machine used for class elections when I was working on the paper and..."

"Clare it's perfect, I know exactly where I'm gonna put it" he smiled. "I'm not sure if I deserve it though, you would have done the same thing for me." Eli moved even closer to Clare squeezing her shoulders.

"As long as you're here you deserve it." Clare leaned into him and played with his guitar pic necklace. "I love you" Clare confessed

"And I love you," He said turning to face her. "Do you think if I try to kiss you again, the paparazzi will show up?"he joked

"I'm not sure" Clare told him as she tilted her head and he leaned in so their lips finally connected.

"Today is the last day to nominate a candidate for Student Class President?" He heard Marisol say over loud-speaker and he was brought out of his daydream. He still held the photograph in his hands. It was one that Adam had taken and Clare had forced him to hand over and had printed. He felt that he'd let her down. She'd thought of him as her superhero and he'd ran around the school naked, said some pretty nasty things, took drugs and risked his health. How could he be there for her when he couldn't even save himself. He looked down at his bag and the button Clare had given him. He looked at his and her stuff in the locker and got an idea. Just because him and Clare were on a break, didn't mean he couldn't show her he still cared about her.

Clare hurried to Eli's locker to clear out her stuff so she could spend the rest of the lunch period campaigning. She opened up the locker as fast as she could and prepared her bag to toss the stuff in. She hoped it didn't take long, she really should be using this time to promote her campaign. She finally opened the locker and as she did so a folded piece of paper hit the floor. She picked it up and opened it. Looking around not sure if this note was meant for her. She immediately concluded that the letter was from Eli by the hand-writing. She looked around to make sure Eli wasn't anywhere near before reading it.

_Clare,_

_ With your classes close by and your campaign I figured it'd make more sense for you to have this locker. I'm not gonna change my mind about this, I've already moved my stuff into your relocated locker, I hope you don't mind. You'll make a great president, you have my vote._

_-Eli _

Clare looked more closely at the locker, sure enough all of Eli's stuff was gone and all of hers was neatly organized inside of it. Part of her felt relieved that she didn't have to move her stuff around, but at the same time she was confused as to why Eli was doing this. She put the letter in her bag and put her books back in the locker. She noticed one of her post-its was attached to something on the shelf. The purple sticky note read, _I don't deserve this anymore_ and It was stuck to the black Bat signal pin button she gave him. She left it there, not sure if she agreed with his sentiment or not. Right now she had to concentrate on herself and this election. She closed the locker, locked it and walked toward the cafeteria to campaign.

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**Yay for independent Clare! (but really though Eclare has to be Endgame) So What did you think? Should I continue writing Eclare fics or continue :D ? **

**~inserts shameless self promotion~**

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